Year 1933
Nazi Germany’s Gestapo secret police force formed.
APRIL 26
Daily Historical Chronicle
UPSC CSE • State PSC • SSC CGL Matrix
26 April: What Happened On This Day in History
Curated historical timeline of momentous political pacts, freedom struggle uprisings, constitutional developments, scientific breakthroughs, and prominent birthdays recorded on 26 April.
Observances & Special Days
Union Day (Tanzania)
Year 1962
NASA’s Ranger-4 crashed into the moon.
Year 1964
Tanganyika joined Zanzibar to form Tanzania.
Year 1970
The Convention establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization implemented.
Year 1973
Ajit Nath Ray became the 14th Chief Justice of India.
Year 1986
A massive explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Russia released radioactive material into the atmosphere.
Year 1989
A cyclone killed at least 1,300 people, injured 12,000, and left 80,000 homeless in Bangladesh.
Year 1995
Nisha Mohota of India won the International Women’s Master’s Book at the Asian Divisional Chess Championship.
Year 2002
Robert Steinhäuser kills 16 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot.
Year 2010
Bihar government decided to brand Bihar’s famous Chinia banana as Ganga Banana.
Born 1894
Rudolf Hess, Egyptian-German politician (d. 1987)
Born 1900
Charles Richter, an American seismologist, and physicist.
Born 1908
Sarv Mittra Sikri, the 13th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India.
Born 1917
I. M. Pei, Chinese-American architect, designed the National Gallery of Art and Bank of China Tower
Born 1937
Hridaynath Mangeshkar, an Indian music director.
Born 1948
Moushumi Chatterjee, an Indian actress.
Born 1963
Jet Li, a Chinese-born film actor.
Born 1974
Raveena Tandon, an Indian actress, model, and producer.
Born 1991
Amala Paul, an Indian film actress.
Died 1858
Kunwar Singh, a leader during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Died 1865
John Wilkes Booth, an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.
Died 1920
Srinivasa Ramanujan, an Indian mathematician.
Died 1924
Ramabai Mahadev Ranade
Died 1987
Shankar Singh Raghuvanshi, the Shankar-Jaikishan duo composer.
Died 1999
Manmohan Adhikari, Nepal’s first democratically elected Prime Minister.